US-Australia hoops

Team USA just went more than six minutes holding the Aussies without a field goal. Just a breathtaking exhibition of halfcourt team defense, the type of thing some of us doubted we'd ever see from a bunch of NBA stars.

They were down 15-14 midway through the first quarter; they're up 59-29 at the half.

A fact apparently lost on Fran "Fuckbrains" Fraschilla, who continues to harp on his idea that the US has to "be more patient," shorten the bench, drop the pressure defense, fall back in the lane, and "guard 22 feet in" like he's Hank Iba or something.

Yeah, sure, Fran. We do all that, and if everything works out right, if we're lucky, we win 67-63. (And in addition, the game is then also close enough for the Bizarro World/Keystone Kops referees' calls to fuck us out of the game. When you're up 40 with 2:00 to play, the refs' calls don't matter.)

He made a major coaching move from the beginning. He listened and observed rather than stuffing his style of coaching down these guys' throats. He has treated them like professionals and adjusted to their strengths rather than forcing them to adjust to his coaching.

He made a major coaching move from the beginning. He listened and observed rather than stuffing his style of coaching down these guys' throats. He has treated them like professionals and adjusted to their strengths rather than forcing them to adjust to his coaching.

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That's coaching. Too many of those egomaniacs think their one system fits all.

He made a major coaching move from the beginning. He listened and observed rather than stuffing his style of coaching down these guys' throats. He has treated them like professionals and adjusted to their strengths rather than forcing them to adjust to his coaching.

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B-I-N-G-O.

In addition, K has, for the last 20 years at least, based his philosophy on almost always having more talent than the opponent, then using that talent to dominate and crush them.

The risk-avoidance, walk-the-ball-down, milk-the-clock, isolation-game control-the-tempo sludgeball philosophy which has been in vogue in the NBA and major colleges for the last 10-15 years is based upon neutralizing talent differentials between teams -- the entire objective of that style of play is to go into the last 24 seconds of the game with the score tied at 63-63, three time-outs and the ball, so your wizard-genius coach can then diagram a play to win the game for you.

That'll win you 50-55 games in an 81-game schedule, in a reasonably evenly-matched league like the NBA. It will probably win you 4 out of 7 games in a playoff series, ohhh, maybe 11 times out of 19. When you are playing one-game-and-out knockout tournaments, you must set out to crush your opponents, destroy them, blow them off the court as decisively as possible.